


Bad Timing

by Return009



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: And some apples, F/F, There is a wagon involved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:00:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24344644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Return009/pseuds/Return009
Summary: Raven has to share a wagon with Lexa on their journey back to Polis.
Relationships: Lexa/Raven Reyes
Comments: 5
Kudos: 94





	Bad Timing

**Author's Note:**

> So my girlfriend called this soft. You'll have to decide.

The way their wagon sways back and forth as it travels down the patchy road has Raven clutching her stomach. For the fourth time, she tries holding her breath and counting to ten to keep her breakfast down. At some point, it’ll just be a futile effort. Beside her, Lexa is sitting crossed-legged in quiet meditation. For some inexplicable reason, Clarke’s alleged kindred spirit always seem so keen on ignoring her. She either spends most of the trip staring out into the open path for long periods of time or sitting like that with her eyes shut. A few times Raven almost pokes her out of concern that she let the Commander die in her presence. Clarke would be furious with her. 

“Apologies,” Raven mumbles as her foot brushes against Lexa’s knee when she stretches out her bad leg.

No response. 

“Wouldn’t hurt you to speak, Commander. It would definitely make the trip less boring.” They still have three days left in their journey back to Polis. At this rate, they’d both turn to human statues before they’d even get there.

Lexa’s eyes flutter open. The light from outside that spills into the wagon has warmed her face for the better part of the hour, giving her a majestic glow. Unknowingly, Raven bites at her inner cheek. “I doubt conversation would help your nausea.” 

“She speaks.” Immediately, Raven regrets the snark as a strong wave of nausea travels up her throat. Clasping a hand over her mouth, she tries to reel the feeling back down. Shit. A slight chuckle comes from Lexa’s direction. Awful, arrogant woman. 

“It seems that I am correct in my assessment of you,” Lexa muses. 

Raven doesn’t respond this time since she’s not entirely sure what might come out of her mouth. Her watery eyes narrow at Lexa, challenging her to continue. 

“Stubborn. Sharp-tongued. Impatient.” 

Well, that’s not an entirely bad assessment of her. To be fair, Raven’s been called worse. 

“You forget curious,” she breathes out, lending more support to Lexa’s point about her stubbornness. The wave continues to wreak havoc on her body, and Raven desperately wants to ask Lexa to put her out of her misery with a knife to the heart. She blinks a few times so the tears would drain back into her eyes.

“I might have a remedy for your condition.” Lexa pushes herself up from her spot, hand grasping at the fabric on the side to steady herself as the wagon rocks even more violently.

“Make this stop and I’ll stop badmouthing you behind your back.”

“I doubt that anything could ever stop you from doing that.” 

Damn, if she gets out of this one alive, she’s going to have to tell Octavia that Lexa made a joke to her. And it was somewhat funny and kinda cute. It’s going to blow her mind. 

“Give me your hand.” 

She obliges by extending her right hand to Lexa, who turns it over so she can apply a light pressure to the inside of Raven’s wrist. The relief is instantaneous. 

“Who taught you this?” Raven asks, suddenly interested in Lexa’s miraculous healing powers.

“A nurse who treated me when I fell ill two seasons ago.”

“What? The great Commander actually gets sick?” She teases, and her mind immediately goes to Clarke. A different feeling altogether rises in her chest. It makes her feel uneasy all the same.

Lexa glances between Raven and her wrist, eyes undecipherable. “It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, I try to keep that information from getting to the wrong ears.”

Raven doesn’t know how to respond to a comment like that because she’s never known what it’s like to have that kind of burden on her shoulders. To feel like everyone is counting on her to be alive and well for the sake of their own well-being. Maybe that’s why Clarke and Lexa are drawn to one another. Shared burdens and all.

The sudden cease in the rocking pulls Raven from her thoughts. It seems they might have reached a smoother path. 

“Press here,” Lexa instructs before removing her fingers from Raven’s wrist. The pulse there throbs uncontrollably for no reason. She covers it with her own fingers.

“I trust that you’ll remember this technique the next time it comes back.”

“Let’s hope that there won’t be a next time for the remainder of this trip.” 

In typical Commander fashion, Lexa nods at her without saying another word. Though, if Raven isn’t mistaken, there’s a gentler quality about her this time. Or maybe Lexa has always been this way, and Raven is just starting to acknowledge it now. She blames it on their close quarters inside a moving wagon.

Gracefully, Lexa slides back to her normal spot, and Raven continues to hold her wrist in her hand while she mulls over the issue.

“Would you care for a short walk?” Lexa asks after a short silence. 

“Yes, I can follow the wagon for a bit. I need to stretch my legs.” 

“Very well, then.” 

Lexa moves again, this time to the front of the wagon. There’s some distinct mumbling between her and the horseman before the wagon slows to a stop. When she turns back around to look at Raven with that knowing expression that’s become somewhat of a revelation to her, Raven can _see_ it. Why Clarke’s attracted to Lexa. 

“Fuck,” she mutters and hastily stands. If Lexa’s confused by the abruptness, she doesn’t question Raven about it. 

“There’s an hour until sunset.” Lexa lifts the privacy drape open so Raven could follow her out. She steps off the wagon first and turns around to offer her hand out to help Raven down.

“Uh.” She stills at the sight of the Commander’s hand. For someone who’s fought in many wars, her skin’s completely unblemished. “I…I’m good.” She slides down the wagon without Lexa’s aid and exhales in the opposite direction. In the corner of her eye, she sees Lexa wipe that hand on the side of her leg. 

\--

They follow the wagon on foot in silence while the sun starts to dip below the trees. Raven finds herself sneaking glances at her walking companion every now and then out of curiosity. How does Lexa tan so well?

“Is there something on your mind?”

“Something is always on my mind. Why do you ask?”

“You keep on looking over in my direction every few minutes. I’ve been wondering when you’d ask your question.” 

“Fine. Truth or dare?”

“Truth or dare what?” Right. Why did Raven expect Lexa to know about truth or dare? She’s all post-apocalyptic Commander of rivaling clans and all. 

“It’s a game. You pick truth or dare. Truth, you have to answer my question truthfully. Dare, you have perform a dare that I give regardless of what it is.” 

“Neither choice seems favorable when I don’t know what the decision entails.”

“Which is the point of it. Look, I’ll go first. I pick truth. So go ahead and ask me a question.”

“How old are you?”

“What kind of question is that Lexa? You just wasted it on something you could have asked me while we were in the wagon. I’m nineteen, by the way. It’s now your turn. Truth or dare?”

Lexa looks ahead, the decision clearly weighing on her mind quite heavily. Raven has to cough to hide her growing smile. “Truth.” 

“Out of all of Clarke’s friends, who do you like the least?”

“Murphy,” she answers firmly. 

“Murphy? Wow, I would have thought it’d be Bellamy.”

“Is Bellamy a friend? I thought he was just someone who refused to leave.” 

Raven laughs. Damn, she’s quite funny. 

“My turn now, I pick dare.” 

The hint of a grin tug at the corner of Lexa’s lips. “Would that be wise in your current state?”

“I’m feeling better now.” In fact, she hasn’t thought about feeling sick since they’ve stepped off the wagon. Something else has been occupying her mind entirely. 

“I dare you to retrieve that apple with a bow and arrow.” Raven follows Lexa’s eyes to the apple tree ahead of them. 

Of course Lexa fails to understand the point of truth or dare. Her questions are literal ones that could be answered with an ID if Raven still had hers. And Lexa’s dares are more like tasks that tests her ability as a warrior. She looks up at the apple tree and curses herself for being a poor archer. There’s no way in hell she’d be able to shoot down that apple. So she settles for the next best thing. 

“What are you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing?” She hooks the bow and quiver over her shoulder and walk over to the tree. Hitching a foot on the trunk, she tests out its strength first before lifting herself up. “I’m climbing a tree.” 

It turns out that Raven, in fact, doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing. She’s neither an archer or a tree climber. But a dare’s a dare, and she’s not going to cave in front of Lexa when she was the one to propose the game in the first place. 

By some miracle, she manages to get to the branch that looks sturdy enough to hold her weight. Carefully, she slides along it, arm extending for the most delicious green apple she’s ever seen. But it hangs higher than her arm can reach. The tips of her fingers barely touch the fruit before it dangles away from her. 

“Dammit,” she mumbles. Naturally, her eyes fall to the spot where Lexa’s standing. The Commander’s got that shit-eating grin on her face again, and for the first time, Raven’s heart rate picks up while she’s this high off the ground. 

“No worries! I’m about to get this apple!” She reaches at her back for the arrow and uses it to draw the branches the apple hangs from closer. With her other hand, she reaches to pluck it free. “Success!”

She hears the familiar chuckle from down below and feel the adrenaline pounding in her ears to climb back down as fast as she can to give Lexa her apple. 

But it’s very much like her to climb a tree and retrieve an apple successfully to drop it on her descent. The apple slips out of her hand and free falls to the ground. Lexa doesn’t move an inch to catch it, and something within Raven…pauses. She blinks, unsure of the feeling. 

“It’s fine. Come down,” Lexa calls out. Her tone suddenly taking on a serious note.

Raven snakes her way down the tree with a huff, unable to hide her bitter disappointment about how her damn slippery hands just ruined this…this thing for her. As soon as her feet hit the ground, she turns her attention to the fruit lying near a bush, bruised and beaten from the fall it just took. Just a few seconds earlier, the apple was the most glorious thing she’s ever seen. 

“Ugh.” She kicks the dirt with her shoe.

Lexa walks over to bush and picks up the spoiled fruit from the ground. She casts a glance at Raven and throws the apple to her. “Maybe it’s not meant to be yours, but you still finished the dare.”

Raven catches the fruit clumsily in her hands and frowns. Yes, she completed the dare, but it feels like she lost something else entirely. When she looks back at Lexa, the Commander has already turned around to follow the wagon again. “We should make camp in half an hour. It’s about to turn dark.” 

Raven jogs to catch up to her. When she’s side by side with Lexa again, she opens her mouth to say something about their game. About the apple. But the words are lost on her lips when she sees the pensive expression on Lexa’s face. Something deep within pulls at her to keep her thoughts to herself, and their walk remains silent for the remainder of the day.

—-

The next day, they don’t encounter terrible roads, which is a relief for Raven and her stomach. Things start to look up when it comes to her traveling companion as well. Lexa is talking to her more than the first few days of their journey combined, which makes Raven smile a little. Then, Lexa surprises her by asking if she would like to follow the wagon again. 

They play truth or dare for the hour before sunset. Really, truths, since Lexa firmly proclaims that she doesn’t want Raven climbings trees anymore. 

“I don’t think Clarke would like it if I returned you to her in three pieces.” 

At some point during their walk, they stop asking questions and start sharing information about themselves. 

\--

The following day, they step off the wagon two hours before sunset. Raven learns that Lexa is twenty years old. 

“How do you not get pimples around your eyes when you wear that warrior paint all day?”

Lexa doesn’t indulge her with an answer.

\--

The last day, their walk starts three hours before sunset. 

“That’s not a fair question.” 

“How is that not? I ask again. Of all of Clarke’s friends, Bellamy included, who is your favorite?”

“Octavia.”   
  
Raven clutches at her chest in feigned outrage. “And to think we bonded over the past few days. I’ve always thought there was something special between us.” The second the words leave her mouth, she rushes to tackle on an explanation. “Not as special as my friendship with Octavia, but still.” 

An awkwardness settles between them, and suddenly Raven feels like she’s standing next to the distant Commander again and cringes. Ahead, the wagon continues to make creaky noises as it’s being dragged along the path. They’ve been following the vehicle like this for days, and a small part of Raven wishes that there were a few more sunsets for them before Polis. 

“There’s less than a day’s journey left,” Lexa whispers, and Raven looks around to make sure Lexa’s speaking to her. 

“Yes,” she affirms. 

“Any other questions you might want to ask me? I’m afraid that our game of truth or dare won’t continue after we return to Polis.”

About a dozen, Raven thinks. And in that exact moment, she remembers that Lexa is Clarke’s partner, and they’re allies at best. But aside from stubborn, sharp-tongued, and impatient, she’s also very curious. “Under other circumstances, would you have tried to catch the apple?”

Lexa looks ahead in that solemn way Raven’s come to associate with their wagon ride, like the answers to her questions lie somewhere in the trees in front of them. “Yes.” 

“I would have liked you to,” Raven says and turn her attention to the orange sun bathing Polis somewhere in the distance. They follow the wagon in silence as the sun sets for the final time on their journey.

  



End file.
